XCOM 2: A Soldier's Fire
by NanoPaladin
Summary: This is the back story and tale of John Ashford, an XCOM hopeful.
1. Chapter 1 - Interview One

_Authors Note: This is part of a series and backstory for a character that I am planning on creating for XCOM 2._

/This is the documented interview with the lone survivor of the Outpost we found in Missouri. He seemed overly calm before the interview, as if still in shock over the events from the past few nights. It should be known that the assault on this outpost lasted for three days and two nights before XCOM operatives made it to the scene.

 **XCOM Recruiter David Gutierrez:** "Tell me Mr. Ashford….. why should we bring you into the XCOM Program?"

 **John Ashford:** "Twenty years….. It has been twenty years since the visitors claimed our planet as their own. I was only three years old when we lost the war. If you can even call it that. We had grown up on the stories about the XCOM Project, my father, an old pilot and Astronaut had seen them in person. He never really talked about it much until a few weeks back. My father always believed that there was simply no chance that we humans were here alone in the cosmos."

/At this point in time Mr. Ashford exhibited the first signs of emotion.

 **JA:** "You know, back home, in New Town I mean…. we were a small community of about a hundred fifty or so, we knew each others names and no one was ever left out. We had baseball on Friday nights, barbeques on Saturday's and Sunday was a day held for God and family…. we tried our best to live normal lives, heh… well as normal as living the wastes can get."

/There was a bit of a pause in Mr. Ashfords answer. The Recruiter remained patient.

 **JA:** "For the most part we only needed a couple guys on the walls watching for ADVENT, or even a visitor if they felt the need to explore. The abductions of other outposts and colonies weren't unheard of either. It seemed that they would aim for the larger communities, those in the hundreds and even thousands. The days were quiet, I enlisted in the Community Militia to keep watch over the life I learned to love."

/There was another pause in his answer, Mr. Ashford needed to compose himself a bit more.

 **JA:** "Of course I was this dumb twenty year old kid, I got in trouble… I took things mostly for granted.. started skipping on all family events and told my father to blow off. I got hooked into the wrong couple of guys while in the militia. We would.. we would sneak off with a few of the girls to the barn and drink. Eventually this got me reprimanded as well as few other things, I fell off the horse so to say… in the end all I feel is a need to right my wrongs… it was my fault."

 **DG:** "What exactly was your fault?"

/Mr. Ashford spent the next moment a bit choked up.

 **JA:** "The fall of New Town.."

 **DG:** "I see… so why exactly should we take you in? Why do you want to fight?"

 **JA:** "I owe to them…. every last one of them."

 **DG:** "What do you owe them? Why do you owe them?"

 **JA:** "After your men arrived, I spent three days digging graves… it was so many that I began to lose count. It had to be at least… eighty… some of your men were kind enough to help me. Mostly I think it was because I refused to leave until it was done… eighty people died because of my mistake, the other sixty nine are missing. I am all that is left, I have to shoulder the burden of living life for every single one of them. I know that they would want me to fight. The visitors and ADVENT need to pay for every single loss of life. Big and small alike, they came to this planet and begun a war twenty years ago. We lost the first battle, but for as long as I live we will not lose the war. I made a few promises back in New Town, I intend to keep them…"

 **DG:** "Everyone in XCOM has suffered great loss of some kind or another, what makes yours more important? Why should we discount anyone else's tragedies for yours? We are only able to hold and shelter so many people on Avenger after all."

 **JA:** "... you don't… my tragedy is none the worse than anyone elses. Everyone deserves their shot and I am in no position to take that from another. I can tell you this though, despite whether you decide to take me in or not, I will take the fight to them. If I have to fight on my own, then so be it… I know that it is a suicide mission but I have at least one hundred and forty nine visitors to send off to their maker. I will not stop until I see that mission carried out."

 **DG:** "I see… well we will be in touch later so you can debrief us on the events leading up to New Town's fall."

 **JA:** "... very well."

/End interview one.


	2. Chapter 2 - Community Guard

_Authors Note: I got a bit impatient with myself and wrote Chapter 2 early._

/This is the second interview with John documentation of the interview are for the eyes of high level command personnel only.

 **XCOM Sergeant Vladimir "Skulls" Dorokhov:** "Good afternoon Mr. Ashford, I am Sergeant Vladimir Dorokhov. Call me Skulls. I will be taking over your interviews from here."

 **John Ashford:** "What happened to the other guy Skulls?"

 **Skulls:** "Unfortunately he was killed in action. I am unable to go into any further details about it."

 **JA:** "I see…"

 **Skulls:** "Right! So I have looked over the details of Operation Absolved Light…"

 **JA:** "Absolved Light?"

 **Skulls:** "Yes, that is when we found you… I have also reviewed the tape from your initial interview. I would like to ask you to recollect the day to day life at New Town, perhaps a time where anything odd happened."

 **JA:** "Very well…."

/ **Ten Days Prior - Time: 1:30 PM CST**

The sun was high in the sky, clouds scattered shadows along the ground tenderly. John looked at the gate with his steel blue eyes, eyes on the new arrivals. New Town was used to receiving travelling merchants and visitors from other communities. Billy and John both had their SCAR-H's at the ready, New Town had always been cautious when receiving guests. This pair of men had a very odd aura about them. They were hooded and wore large sunglasses; both men thin and probably reaching about six and a half feet tall. The Community Watch Captain was in the process of patting them down checking for weapons or threatening devices. It was fairly easy to keep New Town relatively safe, especially since it was in Fort Leonard Wood, an old army base.

"I will need you to remove the hoods please." Captain Shaw stated to the men. The two tall men looked at one another and decided to comply. John had a keen perception and had just barely caught the flash of odd scaling on one of the mens wrist, covered by his long sleeves. The two men of course walked past them and into New Town.

"Captain I don't really have a good feeling about either of them." John said, watching the tall men shrink from the distance.

"Doesn't matter, the Mayor wanted them through.." Captain Shaw stated walking back into the guard hut. John sighed and looked at Billy, who shrugged back at him.

"I love a man in uniform.." a female voice called out from behind John. He turned around and saw Ashley Lexington. It was kind of ironic that she said uniform, as they really did not have one. John and Billy both wore black digital camo cargo pants, steel grey tshirts and a black leather jacket with a blue stripe bordered with white on the sides down the length of the left arm.

"I still don't really consider this a uniform, at least not in the sense of what they used to be… ironic we don't use old army uniforms… I guess we don't stick out as much in the wastes in these." John shrugged at Ashley. She smiled at him and handed him a well prepared lunch. John wondered how he got such a good looking girl to like him. She had raven black hair that contrasted with her porcelain white skin nicely, of course his favorite feature were her bright blue eyes.

"Thank Coop for the lunch, it looks fantastic." John smiled looking at the carefully packed sub sandwich and chips.

"Hmm alrighty then." she smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I gotta go work now hun, see you later." Ashley winked and and left. John waved and set his lunch down looking at Billy. Billy was a bit pudgier than John but also a little stronger. Billy was probably the only guy in Newtown that had blonde hair and a dark tan, which made him stick out pretty easily.

"John are you going to the baseball game tonight?" Billy asked him, slinging the rifle to his back.

"No, probably going to go to the barn with Keith and the others." John replied, leaning against the wall.

"You know it's the World Series and your dad's team is playing right?" Billy smiled, showing his true baseball nerdism.

"Billy, it can't be the World Series when there is only four teams in the entire town. Aren't you over glorifying it a bit?" John rebutted with an eye roll thrown in. Billy stared him down a bit, wondering what had happened to person John had once been.

"You know John, you used to be really part of the community… ever since you started hanging out with Keith and his group you have really fallen away from that person. She might not say anything but you have Ashley worried." Billy said pointing at John like a scolding parent.

"Look its not your problem ok." John snapped at Billy. "I'm going to go eat." he finished taking his lunch and heading off to some peace and quiet. Billy sighed and continued his watch.

 **/Current Time**

 **Skulls:** "Sounds like you weren't really meshing too well with the community any longer."

 **JA:** "...I guess you could say that…"

 **Skulls:** "Tell me, these two men that came in… if you saw the scales why did you not try and stop them?"

 **JA:** "I'm not were off putting but something kept me from any real action.. like a numbness in my mind."

 **Skulls:** "I assume the attack on New Town happened shortly after?"

 **JA:** "That night actually… "

 **Skulls:** "I see… well we talk about that later on… for now you are dismissed."

 **JA:** "Thank you.."

/End Interview two.


End file.
